Hathwar seeks fifth trip to Scripps National Spelling Bee

Wednesday

Mar 5, 2014 at 1:22 PM

Nearly 60 students from 29 area schools - including defending champ Sriram Hathwar - will compete in Thursday's Regional Spelling Bee, to be held at Campbell-Savona High School's Stephen B. Morley Auditorium.

By Derrick Ekek@the-leader.com

CAMPBELL | Nearly 60 students from 29 area schools - including defending champ Sriram Hathwar - will compete in Thursday’s Regional Spelling Bee, to be held at Campbell-Savona High School’s Stephen B. Morley Auditorium.

The event will begin at 5:30 p.m. It is free and open to the public.

The winner will earn a trip to the 2014 Scripps National Spelling Bee, to be held May 25-31 in Washington, D.C.

Hathwar, an eighth-grader at Corning’s Alternative School for Math and Science, will be vying for his fifth trip to the Scripps National Spelling Bee. He came tantalizingly close to winning last year, finishing third in the finals, which were televised nationally by ESPN.

This year will be his last shot at a national title, as the bee is open to students in eighth grade and below.

In 2008, Hathwar was the youngest speller in the history of the event, but was eliminated in the preliminaries. In 2009, he finished 37th, and in 2011 he finished sixth.

Hathwar once again won his school’s bee and will be competing in the Regional Spelling Bee on Thursday, according to the Corning Rotary Club, one of the sponsors.

The event has grown, with 58 public, private and home-schooled students from Steuben, Chemung, Schuyler, Allegany, Broome and Tompkins counties in New York, as well as Bradford and Tioga counties in Pennsylvania.

There were 40 students from 20 schools last year.

The top two finishers at bees held by each school qualify.

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